How To Keep Your Piano Recital Great ‘Til The Last Drop

The start of your piano recital is minutes away. The seats are filled and now it’s standing room only. You’re starting to sweat while kicking yourself for not booking a bigger venue.

15 minutes later you look out at the audience, and nobody’s standing anymore. You breathe a sigh of relief… everyone’s comfortable.

45 minutes later you look at the audience again. There’s a smattering of empty seats here and there but the audience is still looking good.

The concert ends. You look out at the audience. Where did everyone go? It looks like the home arena of a losing hockey team that’s getting blown out in the third period.

Has This Ever Happened To You At Your Recital?

Does this story hit close to home? Do you have students and their families make a quick exit once their child’s performance has ended? If you’ve answered yes then you’re not alone. It seems that in our over-booked world, people are always rushing off to the next event before the first one is even done. But people should stay until the end. And below we’ve included 7 helpful tips to ensure they do.

How To Keep People in Their Seats

Book Recitals WAY in Advance: Consider this… Obvious Point #1! No matter how far in advance you book your piano recital there are always going to be conflicts! However, your chances of maintaining a full house are always better if you let your families know the recital date months in advance.

Put it in Writing: Obvious Point Number 2: Send a polite, well-worded email about the importance of staying at a recital until the last performance. This shouldn’t sound like a reprimand, nor should it make people feel guilty in advance. Rather, it should be an honest and informative article about how important it is for the confidence and the development of your piano students that they all have an appreciative and full audience.

Throw a Party: If your studio size permits, throw a fun little meet and greet after your piano recital. Personally extend a written and verbal invitation to each of your students so that they are pumped about the party and the opportunity to mingle with their piano playing peers. Making your recital an all-out event increases the likelihood that people will clear their calendars.

Parting Party Gifts: At the end of your recital, have a draw for a month of free lessons. Be sure your entire audience knows that the winner has to be in attendance to accept the award. Or, ask a local business to donate a prize or gift basket in exchange for some serious word-of-mouth advertising (or just create a gift basket yourself). A bit of expense and some extra work… but a full audience makes for a successful recital and a successful recital makes for a successful studio.

Ask in Your Introduction: During your opening introductions, simply ask people to stick around until the very end. Be sure they know how important it is for the very last student to feel as appreciated as the very first student. If there are people who would have left just for the sake of leaving this will keep them in their seats.

Pick Your Recital Time Wisely: Some recital times make leaving easier than others. For instance, any weekend recital held before 3:00 in the afternoon will have more piano families vacating than a recital held in the evening or on a weeknight. But since we’re talking about weeknights… don’t make it too late, or families with little ones will have to rush them off to bed. At our studio, we have to hold four different recitals (3 on Saturday and 1 on Monday night) and the recital on Saturday at 6pm is always has the most people see it through until the end. With that said, we’ve been implementing most of the strategies above for some time now and all of our recitals have tremendous attendance from start to finish!

Or… Go To The Extreme: Put the building in lockdown! I kid, I kid… or do I? 😉

Your Recital’s Over… Now What?

Celebrate with your students after the recital by having some piano theory fun! Nothing is more fun to look forward to than the first lesson after a recital… where the pressure’s off and you can get down and have some fun with piano games! PianoGameClub sends members 4 brand new games every month to ensure they have the perfect game, with the most loveable theme for every concept imaginable! Build an amazing library for just $8 a month.

16 Responses to How To Keep Your Piano Recital Great ‘Til The Last Drop

Great ideas! This year I’m trying something new. I’m calling them Christmas family and friends mini-concerts. Basically I’m just grouping a handful of students who are playing 3-4 Christmas songs while parents munch on cookies and hot chocolate. After that group is finished, the next group will come in and so on. A little different but I hope it turns out. Might be another way to keep people around. 🙂

Love this idea Betsy! Bet is actually seems a lot less hectic for you and a lot more personal for the students. It also seems like a better idea for students who are too nervous to play for the big room full of people and would rather just share their music with a small informal group. I’ll be using this one! Thanks for sharing.

One other thing to add that I’ve had success with: keep recitals short.
I hold recitals in my studio, which is only big enough to hold 10-12 students and their families. That translates to recitals that are about 30 minutes long. I’ve been thanked by many grandparents that have sat through 2+ hours of dance recitals that say that the shorter length helps them actually enjoy the entire recital.
Because I keep recitals short, I have to schedule more recitals, which allows for more scheduling flexibility, even when 2 recitals are the same day. It’s a little more work for me, but it’s worth it in the end.

I’ve also seen success with mixing up the levels of people performing, including some kids in groupings at various points in the schedule and in making sure to vary the songs kids play.

The one means that there is less of an impression that parents are in for a long, painful haul of not-very-proficient players – if you have a few of your better students scattered in there, it will periodically renew interest.

The second circumvents the “one and done” attitude some parents get, because their kid has more than one performance. Plus, having a few groups on the program mixes it up a bit and helps keep things interesting.

The third also breaks up the whole “long, painful haul” feeling. Parents who have been hearing their kid practice a piece for months are not going to be thrilled with an afternoon full of beginner-level performances of the exact same piece, and I don’t blame them. Violin studios who use the Suzuki books are often guilty of this, for example, and it really makes for monotonous recitals.

These are great ideas (as usual!) I really like the “parting gift.” Just think about someone’s child winning a month of free lessons — do you think that’s going to get talked about? Oh yeah! That’s a lot better use of advertising budget than print ads.

For those above who are having smaller recitals, I bet there’s not as much sneaking out before the end. Harder to do that in the smaller venue. Thanks to everyone for sharing.

A reception after the program is always a hit. For the Winter recital, I have each family bring a treat to share. Spring–we have a pizza party. I supply the beverage, charge for the pizza and have it delivered right at the end of the recital. Summer–picnic potluck. Sunday afternoons and evenings have worked very well for me as I avoid school events.

I’m never longer than an hour with my recitals. I try to choose venues with a quality grand piano, comfortable cushioned seating, and adequate room temperature control (a/c for summer, no cold drafts for winter). And there is always drinks and treats to enjoy after. Been doing this for years and my families appreciate these guarantees. Never have any walk away recital guests. Love the idea of a draw for free month of lessons – especially at Christmas. Thanks.

My handout about the recitals talks about respectfully staying throughout the entire recital- and students have to stay – so most parents stay. After sitting through some very long recitals (dance, piano, etc.), I totally agree with you all. I have had some parents thank me for the shorter recitals. However, I also know people often sit at other events much longer – so I don’t get too worried if once in awhile we run longer. I usually say on my handout about how long to expect. If really long – I break it up into smaller, more intimate groups like you have suggested above! Sometimes they all do not stay around for the reception. We are repeating our same venue from last Christmas – a nearby assisted living center. I usually provide all the food, but last year asked parents/students to bring a small tray of a finger food. We had a nice assortment to each and also had enough to leave for the residents. I am thinking on the month of free lessons. After all these years – never even thought of that for current students! LOL! I’ve done some free introductory lessons for local raffles. Thank yoU!

Great tips! I needed those yesterday, I had the first two covered but you described exactly what happened at my end of year recital yesterday afternoon. I will be keeping these tips in mind for future reference thank you!

Great ideas. I’ve incorporated similar things into my recitals, and they do work. I also like to give my students a less traditional performing experience at Christmas. I used to schedule a recital at the local nursing home, but I found it became more and more difficult to do this because a lot of the nursing homes here are hesitant to let a large group of people into their facilities in the winter due to concerns about what sorts of illnesses we bring in with us. For the past several years, I load up my Clavinova (or rather, my husband does!) and take it into the local coffee shop, and my students play there all morning for the customers. I ask them for their preference of what hour shift they would like to play in, and once I have all their preferences, then I assign them a specific time during that hour. I always put breaks somewhere in the hour, in case we end up running behind (I also let parents know that performance times are approximate and I try to keep us no more than 15 minutes behind schedule, which is the main reason I schedule breaks). If we run ahead of schedule, I play some Christmas tunes, or if students stuck around to listen to their friends or enjoy a treat (the coffee shop owner gives them a free hot chocolate and a cookie), I give them the opportunity to play their pieces again. Some kids play only one piece, others love Christmas music so much, they’d play their entire Christmas book if I’d let them! I usually limit it to about 3 pieces (depending on how long they are), but if they stick around and want to play again, sometimes they play different songs the second time they play. In preparation for this performance, we discuss at their lessons how there are more places to share our music than just recitals, how they should deal with distractions they might sense around them in this type of setting, etc. The is the favorite performance of the year for some of my students–and also for some of their parents. Plus, I love that we are supporting one of our small town’s local businesses–that coffee shop is bustling all morning with extra customers who are there for the music!

For the past ten years I have been having my recitals on Sundays in a church sanctuary starting around 3:30. I start on time, move it along quickly and perform at the end, I hand out certificates, take a group picture and parents bring refreshments for a short social period afterwards. The recital usually lasts about an hour and a half or less. So far I have had no problems with people leaving early.

I host a Holiday party every year in December. Students choose their music (with a little guidance so we don’t have five renditions of Jingle Bells!), and families and friends are invited to attend, with treats to share. I don’t print a program or insist they even play, although I do request attendance–and typically even the most reluctant student will play at some point. Many of my students have successfully overcome severe performance anxiety through this relaxed approach–sometimes I have encouraged students to sit down to play when most of the crowd is in the other room eating, and I have also on occasion asked the audience to chat quietly in order for the student to feel less like the focus is on him or her alone. Once a student makes it through their piece, the applause is exhilarating, and those students often find themselves competing for extra time on the bench at the next party!

I usually arrange several smaller ensembles and one all-studio ensemble which is placed near the end. Sometimes I build off someone else’s composition but adapt “parts” for all levels, and sometimes I arrange a famous orchestral piece. We’ve used multiple keyboards, mallet percussion, boomwhackers and so on.

I have 11 students and my recitals are not long. I have each student perform two songs, one solo and one duet. I have them perform twice, but not back to back. I have the two songs spread out so that they have to stay during the hour long recital. (Example- one in the beginning and the other towards the end). I also give them gifts, certificates and a lunch. I also talk to the family before and ask them to stay during the whole performance.